On May 31, 2020, LaToya Ratlieff was at a George Floyd protest in Fort Lauderdale that turned violent. She was heading to her car to go home when a rubber bullet struck her face, a half-inch above her right eye, shattering her eye socket. Footage of the incident showed Ratlieff screaming and blood gushing from her wound. Requiring 20 stitches, the injury nearly cost Ratlieff her eye.
The officer who struck Ratlieff has been exonerated, Fort Lauderdale Police Interim Police Chief Patrick Lynn announced Thursday.
The officer "identified and targeted an individual who hurled a projectile at our officers with an intent to cause them harm" and it was not the officer's "intent" to hit Ratlieff, Lynn said at a news conference.
The department's office of internal affairs conducted an "extensive" review and an external review was conducted as well, Lynn said.
"The department has made every effort to learn from this incident. On behalf of the men and women of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, I want to express my sincerest apology," Lynn said to Ratlieff.
(Emily Shapiro. “Woman shot with rubber bullet at protest said she's not surprised to see officer exonerated.” ABC News. February 26, 2021.)
The AP reported while the officer who shot Ratlieff wasn’t disciplined, two other officers were each suspended for a day for using obscene and vulgar language while shooting foam projectiles at the protesters.
Body camera footage shows Florida police officers laughing and celebrating after shooting rubber bullets at the protest. Fort Lauderdale police posted a video on its official YouTube channel in July 2020 taken from the body camera of Detective Zachary Baro, who was leading the department’s SWAT team unit on May 31. At one point in the video, Baro can be heard saying, “Beat it” and using a profanity, after officers shot the projectiles.
During another section of the video, Baro incorrectly tells another officer that his camera is not recording and the two officers begin laughing and joking about the people they had shot with rubber bullets.
(Kelli Kennedy. “Video: Florida police laugh after shooting rubber bullets.” The Washington Times. July 1, 2020.)
“I still have some vision issues, specifically some of my upper vision. I still have trouble driving at night. I’m still thankful because it could’ve been me losing my entire eye,” Ratlieff said.
The Excuse
On February 25, Fort Lauderdale police released their internal affairs case summary and the investigation from the Use of Force expert against Detective Ramos.
The internal affairs investigation determined Det. Eliezer Ramos had been aiming at another protestor who was attempting to pick up a tear gas canister that was still spewing gas.
Since the officer was not aiming at Ratlieff, but at a person he was justified in shooting, no department policy was violated, interim Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Patrick Lynn said.
“Detective Ramos identified and targeted an individual who had hurled a projectile at our officers with the intent to cause them harm. The internal affairs investigation has determined that it was not Detective Ramos’s intent to strike Ms. Ratlieff,” said Lynn.
Ratlieff said with all the smoke from tear gas, it would be difficult for the officer to actually target someone.
“Even if you’re standing in this corner it was difficult to see, so if you’re standing over there and tell me you have a vantage point to which you can accurately target someone is very interesting.”
Ratlieff and her attorney are calling for the release of the whole case file, not just the summary.
(Ted Scouten. “LaToya Ratlieff: Apology ‘Disingenuous and Disheartening’ After Detective Exonerated For Shooting Her In Face With Projectile During Black Lives Matter Protest.” 4 CBS Miami. February 26, 2021.)
LaToya Ratlieff,said her "heart dropped" when she learned the officer was exonerated but said she wasn't surprised. "It was expected," Ratlieff said at a news conference Friday. "We've seen this happen too many times ... when it comes to Black life."
“Interim Chief Patrick Lynn gets to give a very, very bland apology for my experience, as if I had a bad dinner at a restaurant. It’s disingenuous, it’s disheartening but if nothing else it’s invigorating because it reaffirms why we were in the streets marching ... and why this doesn't end today," said Ratlieff.
(Emily Shapiro. “Woman shot with rubber bullet at protest said she's not surprised to see officer exonerated.” ABC News. February 26, 2021.)
Michael Davis, an attorney for Ratlieff, said Thursday the police department’s investigation was a sham.
“This investigation has never been about finding out what actually happened,” Davis said. “This investigation has always been about trying to justify what happened. There is no reason to use rubber bullets against peaceful demonstrators who are choking on gas and they’re in a place they have a right to be.”
The Bottom Line
Ratlieff was attending a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration, exercising her right to demand better treatment of Black citizens by police – just like thousands of others were doing across the country in 2020.
The Miami Herald Editorial Board reported, “The bullet came without provocation, witnesses and Ratlieff have said, although in the days after the shooting the department, and even Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, tried to paint Ratlieff as an instigator. She wasn’t, as video footage and still photos revealed.”
The Miami Herald reported on December 16, 2020 …
“Demonstrators have said that police were the aggressors that May night, with things heating up after one officer, identified as Steven Poherence, shoved a kneeling woman in the head. Demonstrators, outraged, hurled water bottles at officers, who responded by firing off tear gas.
“As Ratlieff urged a group of young men to kneel to show police – heavily armed – that they were not threats, one officer fired rubber bullets, one of which hit her 30 feet away. A bullet struck Ratlieff just above the right eye, fracturing her eye socket and swelling her eyes shut. She was the most seriously injured demonstrator — and the luckiest. Doctors told her it would have been a different story if the bullet had struck her in the eye.”
(Editorial Board. “Officer’s rubber bullet almost blinded peaceful protester. She’s owed an apology and an explanation | Editorial.” Miami Herald. December 16, 2020.)
The Miami Herald reported: “The police manual makes clear that a shot to the head with a rubber bullet, such as Ratlieff received, is potentially lethal and should not be fired unless deadly force is justified. Doesn’t seem that it was in this case.”
Consider the facts according to the Fort Lauderdale police:
In thick smoke from tear gas on May 31, 2020, Fort Lauderdale Detective Ramos, believing deadly force was justified, fired a rubber bullet at a person attempting to pick up a tear gas canister. Missing the target, the bullet instead struck LaToya Ratlieff, an innocent bystander and shattered her eye socket. And, since the officer was not aiming at Ratlieff, but at a person he was supposedly justified in shooting, no department policy was violated, and the officer who struck Ratlieff has been exonerated.
Consider you or your loved one to be LaToya Ratlieff. Consider her injuries, and consider justice. Then, consider the value of Black lives in the eyes of police officers who serve in a system in which systemic racism contributes to untold violence and death. Finally, consider that this injustice still occurs over and over in an America with a significant population that opposes the Black Lives Matter movement.
Postscript
On June 29, 2020, Ms. LaToya Ratlieff was part of a virtual briefing held by The House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz and U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin both asked Ms. Ratlieff questions in reference to the May 31, 2020, protest in downtown Fort Lauderdale. This is part of what she said:
“As I sit here today, I have little to no vision in my right eye. Doctors don't know if that will change. Like hundreds of millions of people around the world, I was shocked and disgusted by the murder of George Floyd. I wanted to do something. I heard about civil demonstrations and I joined in. I first attended one in Miami on May 30th. We exercised our first amendment rights without incident or violence from the police.
“Because of this experience, I decided to attend another demonstration the following afternoon. As I walked through Fort Lauderdale that day, I looked around. I saw a diverse group of people who shared a common goal. I saw young and old, wealthy and poor, black, white, Hispanic and every other demographic you could imagine. At one point we took a knee to show that we were no threat and meant the police no harm.
“At other demonstrations, the police actually joined the demonstrators. Not here. The police begin firing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets. I will forever be scared by the Fort Lauderdale Police shooting me in the head on May 31st. Officer Eliezer Ramos shot me, a peaceful demonstrator, an unarmed woman in the head with a rubber bullet while merely exercising my first amendment right to speak out against police brutality. I became the type of victim that I was there to support. Twenty-five (25) days after incident reports were filed, which make no claim I did anything unlawful or wrong. I still await an apology from Officer Ramos, Chief Maglione, or anyone in leadership in the city of Fort Lauderdale.”
The full report from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, click here: https://miami.cbslocal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15909786/2021/02/internalreport.pdf
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